Common Birds: Red-wattled Lapwing, Common Pariah Kite, Paddy Bird, Little Egret

Red-wattled Lapwing. Vanellus indicus

Hin: Titeeri, Ass: Balighura

Size: Partridge +; more leggy.

Field Characters: A familiar plover, bronze-brown above, white below, with black breast, head and neck, and a crimson fleshy wattle in front. of each eye. A broad white band
from behind eyes running down sides of neck to meet the white underparts. Sexes alike.

Habits: Scattered pairs affect open country, ploughed fields, grazing land, and margins and dry beds of tanks and puddles. Also met with in forest glades around rain-filled depressions. Is uncannily and ceaselessly vigilant, day or night, and foremost to detect intrusion and raise the alarm.

Call: A loud, penetrating, Did-he-do-it? or Pity-to-do-it? repeated placidly or frantically as the occasion demands.

Food and feeding: Insects, grubs, molluscs, etc. Runs about in short spurts and dips forward obliquely to pick up food in the typical plover manner.

Nesting:

Season: Chiefly March to August.

Nest & Eggs: 4, stone colour or greyish brown, blotched with blackish; peg-top shaped. Laid on bare ground in open waste land, occasionally with the depression ringed around with a few pebbles. They match the soil to perfection and are difficult to find.

Online Resources

Call recordings:  https://www.xeno-canto.org/explore?query=Vanellus%20indicus

Images: https://www.birdsofindia.org/#!/sp/965/Vanellus-indicus

Common Pariah Kite. Milvus migrans

Hin: Cheel Ass: Chiloni

Size: Vulture -; about 24".

Field Characters: A large brown hawk, distinguished from all similar birds by its forked tail, particularly in overhead flight. Sexes alike. Singly or gregariously, scavenging in  towns and villages.

Habits: Our commonest raptor. A confirmed commensal of man and usually found in the neighbourhood of human habitations, whether populated city or outlying hamlet. Remarkably adroit on the wing, turning and twisting, banking and stooping to scoop up scraps from a traffic-congested thoroughfare and avoiding tangles of overhead telephone and electric wires with masterful ease.

Food: Offal and garbage, earthworms, winged termites, lizards, mice, disabled or young birds, and almost anything else that can be procured.

Call: A shrill, almost musical whistling ewe-wir-wir-wir uttered from a perch as well as on the wing.

Nesting:

Season: September to April, varying locally.

Nest: An untidy platform of twigs, iron wire, tow, rags and rubbish of every description, up in a large tree or on roof or cornice of a building.

Eggs: 2 to 4, dirty pinkish white, lightly spotted and blotched with reddish brown. Both sexes share in the domestic duties.

Online Resources

Call recordings: https://www.xeno-canto.org/explore?query=Milvus%20migrans%20

Images: https://www.birdsofindia.org/#!/sp/1115/Milvus-migrans

Paddy Bird or Pond Heron. Ardeola grayii

Hin: Andha bagla, Ass: Kanamuchuri

Size: Cattle Egret -.

Field Characters: An egret-like marsh bird chiefly earthy brown when at rest, but with the glistening white wings, tail and rump flashing into prominence immediately it flies. In breeding season acquires maroon hair-like plumes on back, and long white occipital crest. Sexes alike. Singly, or loose parties, at jheels, ponds, etc.

Habits: Found wherever there is water; river, jheel, roadside ditch, kutcha well, or temple pond, often even in the midst of populous towns. Also on the seacoast in mangrove swamps, tidal mudflats, etc. Flight typically heron—steady wing beats with neck pulled in. Roosts in large leafy trees in mixed congregations of crows and other birds.

Food and feeding: Frog, fish, crabs and insects. Its normal method of feeding is to stand hunched up at the water's edge watching patiently for movement and jabbing at the quarry when opportunity offers. Sometimes it wades into the shallows, moving forward stealthily and with circumspection, neck craned and bill poised in readiness.

Call: A harsh croak uttered when flying off. A low conversational note, wäku, and a variety of peculiar mumbling is produced by nesting pairs.

Nesting:

Season: Chiefly May to September (SW. monsoon); November to January in S. India.

Nest: An untidy twig platform like a crow up in large mango, tamarind and such-like trees, shared with other egrets. Frequently within town limits; not necessarily near water.

Eggs: 3 to 5, pale greenish blue.

Online Resources

Call recordings: https://www.xeno-canto.org/explore?query=Ardeola%20grayii%20

Images: https://www.birdsofindia.org/#!/sp/916/Ardeola-grayii

Little Egret. Egretta garzetta

Hin: Surkhia bagla, Ass: Bogoli

Size: Village hen; longer neck and legs.

Field Characters: A lanky snow-white marsh bird differentiated from the very similar Cattle Egret in plumage by its black bill and parti-coloured black and yellow feet. A long drooping crest of two narrow plumes acquired in the breeding season; also, dainty filamentous ornamental feathers (' aigrettes ') on both back and breast. Sexes alike. In former years ' aigrettes ' were in great demand in western countries for millinery purposes. The trade is now illegal.

Habits: Flocks on marshes, beels and rivers; also, tidal mudflats. Flies with steady wing beats, neck pulled in like a heron; roosts in trees.

Food: Insects, frogs and small reptiles.

Nesting:

Season: Principally July/August in N. India; November to February in the south.

Nest: A shallow twig platform, like a crow's, lined with straw, leaves, etc. Built in trees, among mixed heronries, often near a village.

Eggs: 4, pale bluish green.

Online Resources

Images: https://www.birdsofindia.org/#!/sp/925/Egretta-garzetta